


There’ll Be No Sacrifice Today

by penumbria



Category: NCIS
Genre: BAMF!Tony, Bad!Jenny, Gen, Gibbs is in Mexico, Good!Vance, Tony-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-11
Updated: 2015-05-11
Packaged: 2018-03-30 03:04:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3920545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penumbria/pseuds/penumbria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Gibbs is away in Mexico, things start going wrong for Tony. Until he finds a mysterious card on his desk with a cryptic message. It leads him down a road where he decides he won't be a sacrifice for anyone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written as part of the NCIS Reverse Big Bang 2015. Thanks to my beta cait170301 and the artist that inspired this story kj_svala.
> 
> I do not own NCIS and I make no money from this story.

Art by kj_svala, to see the rest of the art she created: [Here](http://over-thehills.livejournal.com/97477.html)

 

Tony sat alone at the piano in his apartment, his fingers idly picking out a tune but not consciously paying attention to his actions. His mind was fully occupied with puzzling out the recent revelations about his job and his co-workers that had been brought forcefully to his attention. It had been almost two months since his former boss, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, had gotten himself blown up during a fairly routine op and ended up with severe amnesia. It had been an intense period of time, finally ending with Gibbs retiring and heading off into the blue, abandoning Tony and the rest of the team with barely a word. The team had not reacted well and Tony was struggling to keep them together and functioning.

Then, two days before, Tony had arrived at NCIS and found a business card sitting in the center of his desk. It had been a card for a hole-in-the-wall bar with a date and time scrawled on the back. Under this information was two words: “Occhi verdi.” Tony had recognized the Italian words for green eyes and after a few moments, recalled the code. He knew who the card was from and who he was supposed to meet and when, but he had no idea why. But he knew that he would attend, regardless. He would never disrespect the man who had sent him the card. And the way it had been set up, Tony knew it meant that it was very important and very secretive.

And so Tony had followed the directions on the card, taking care on his way to lose any possible tails on him and leaving his car several blocks away with his cell phone placed in the glove box to keep its GPS chip from showing where he was. Tony sat in the far corner of the darkened bar, his back to the wall, his eyes scanning the room as best he could in the dim light, as he sipped sparingly from his beer bottle. He felt a bit ridiculous but knew that if he hadn't followed the directions that had been established so long ago, this meeting would never happen and whatever information that was in the possession of his contact would remain with him, leaving Tony in the dark.

Tony's beer was barely below the neck of the bottle, though it had been over 20 minutes since he had sat down, when the chair opposite him was grabbed and pushed against the other wall, so that it's new occupant was facing the fairly empty bar and not the back wall. Tony chuckled under his breath. "Very interesting move. Keep your back to the wall even among old friends?"

The other man smiled wryly. "It keeps you alive. And multiple pairs of eyes are better than one."

Tony sighed. "I would make a joke about paranoia and James Bond but considering who you went to work for last I heard, it wouldn't be nearly as funny."

The shaved head nodded. "True."

"This was your call. I wouldn't even know how to get a meeting with you, so what is going on? Do you need my help?"

"I have a question for you. You've had a few dates with a girl recently. Are you really interested in her or are you on an assignment?"

Tony carefully placed his beer bottle on the table after almost dropping it. "I date lots of girls, you know that."

"Don't play me for a fool, Tonio. Jeanne Benoit. Are you serious about her, dating her for real, or is she an assignment handed down from your agency director?"

Tony took a deep breath. "Why do you care? How do you even know to care?"

The man slid an envelope from his inner coat pocket and placed it on the table. He opened it and removed several photographs and turned them so Tony could see them. They were pictures of Tony and Jeanne Benoit eating dinner in a restaurant, walking into a movie theater, and kissing at her front door. They were from the last three dates he had been on with the woman, his first three dates with her, to be precise.

"How did you get these? Did you - How? Why?"

"Jeanne's father is very over-protective. She has nothing to do with his business. She doesn't even know about it, the reality of what he is and does. But he loves her and keeps track of her as best as he can. You're lucky that I was the one on duty this month to trail her. Anyone else and your cover would have been blown by now. Because she is a mark, isn't she, Tony? You're trying to get close to her father?"

"I can't - I don't - Jeanne is really sweet."

"I'm sure. I'm also sure she doesn't know what you do for a living. Does she even know your real name? I'm highly doubting it. I know it has been years since we've seen each other, Tony, but I do care about you. And your director is setting you up. This op is not sanctioned. Jeanne's father is under the control of the CIA and FBI and they will not let a tiny agency like NCIS have a piece. But, your director doesn't want a piece. She wants a head. Specifically, the head of the man that she blames for her own father's death. And she doesn't care who gets in the way. You, Jeanne, me, as long as she gets to kill him. There's something going on with her beyond her obsession. This op she has you on - it doesn't make sense. You need to back off from Jeanne before you get yourself exposed and killed. And figure out what is going on with your boss."

The other man took another envelope from his pocket and put it on the table. Tony looked at it, afraid to reach forward and take it. "It's the evidence about her father. And a few other things. Keep yourself safe, Tony. Cousin. Keep yourself alive. Don't get in the middle of this."

Tony nodded, part way in shock.

"If you really need to get in touch, leave a message at Langley for Trent Kort. Or call the old contact number and leave a message about a high school reunion for Trent Kort. That would probably be quicker than trying to depend on the official agency channels."

With those final words, the bald man rose to his feet with a smile, returned the chair to its previous position and left the bar, not looking back at his younger cousin, who he had left floundering as Tony’s mind raced over new possibilities and worries.

That meeting had taken place the night before and after perusing the documentation his cousin had provided and then lying awake in bed for hours, Tony had come to the conclusion that he needed to find out what was going on at NCIS. Jenny’s behavior was so odd, Tony wasn’t sure what was happening with her. He could understand her wanting revenge but the way in which she was going about it was distinctly irregular and made little sense.

The past day, between working on paperwork for recent closed cases, and highly thankful that no new cases came in, Tony had used his skills at stealth, first learned when avoiding his father’s rages as a child and later perfected at military school and as an undercover cop, to follow his co-workers and spy on them. The layout and design of the NCIS offices truly helped in this endeavor, with the odd corners and strange alcoves and hallways.

Within an hour Tony’s spying had paid dividends with both McGee and Ziva. When McGee had gotten up to head to the bathroom, Tony had walked the other way, circling back around to intercept McGee's path back. He had stopped around the corner from the bathroom and taken out his cell phone, fingers moving over the screen as he lounged against the wall, seeming to be texting to anyone passing by. As he waited, he saw the director head towards the back hall where the men's room was located. And Tony discovered he was right. McGee exited the bathroom and his journey back to his desk was stopped when Jenny addressed him, asking how his day was going and if he needed anything.

During the ensuing conversation, McGee has been only slightly flustered from being addressed by the head of the agency, not a stutter in sight, so to speak. This pointed to Tony that it was not an unusual occurrence for his former probie to be addressed directly by their ultimate boss in a fairly casual setting. If he had been shocked, McGee would not have been able to stop himself from stuttering and other nervous gestures of body and speech.

Listening to the words that Jenny and McGee exchanged gave Tony another clue as to the reason for his team's disintegration. And Tony would bet it had been happening from almost the instant Gibbs had handed over his badge and left the building. The director of NCIS was subtly encouraging Tim's recent insubordination by praising his work and lamenting his lack of time as a field agent which precluded him from being given a Team Lead role. _In all honesty_ , Tony thought with cynicism, _McGee shouldn't even have the Senior Field Agent role._ The younger man had only been out of his probationary status for a brief while and he didn't have any background in fieldwork that would speed up the process. But when the director appointed someone, there was no recourse but to accept it. And McGee's placement was supposedly “temporary”. At least on the books, it was listed that way.

As Tony had heard their conversation begin to end, Tony had slid his phone back into his pocket and returned down the hall and around the corner, getting back to his desk before McGee even was within eyesight of their area of the bullpen.

Later that day, Tony had been able to perform a similar covert operation when Ziva had left her desk and was able to eavesdrop on a strikingly familiar conversation. Granted, Ziva's skills in interrogation and hand-to-hand were stroked rather than computers but Jenny made it clear that Ziva was the superior agent in her eyes and that Tony was a bit of a joke and not to be taken seriously. It explained clearly why Ziva had been ignoring his orders and coming in late and leaving early when they weren't on a hot case. And why her reports were so sloppy, as well.

Jenny was encouraging Ziva and Tim to see him as nothing more than his mask that he wore to deflect people from his real self. Before Gibbs had left, Tony thought that they had been making progress towards really seeing him but anything that had been there was now swept away under the subtle broom of Director Jennifer Shepard.

At lunch time, Tony took the back stairs to autopsy, hoping to speak with Ducky about his findings, only to almost stumble onto the scene of another “isolate Tony” conversation between Jenny and someone. The medical examiner wasn't being encouraged to disrespect Tony. He was smart enough to see through such a thing. But Jenny was venting her anger and hurt over Gibbs' departure and lies of omission regarding his first family. She was stoking the Englishman's ire and fanning the flames, keeping them lit. It explained why Ducky was still so hot under the collar at Gibbs after several months when the object of his anger wasn't even present. But it did make it difficult to talk to the older man without him lapsing into rants about honesty and friendship and sliding into long stories that sounded more like fables with morals about telling the truth than anything else.

After overhearing this conversation, and being blindsided by its existence, unlike the ones he had almost expected to happen with his team, Tony wondered about his other possible support. Abby. The forensic lab wasn't easy to spy on and Abby rarely left it. But after some thought, Tony came up with a possible way to at least listen in on the goings on there.

Tony kept an eye on the director's office and when he saw his boss head towards the elevator, he headed towards the men's room. He entered a stall and closed the door behind him, taking out his cell, he used it to dial the lab and activate the speaker phone feature he had flicked on an earlier visit. He wasn't sure it would work but it did and Tony got another earful of explanations for someone's recent actions. This time the conversation between the redhead and her victim was centered around missing Gibbs and hoping he was okay and that Gibbs was special and Tony wasn't Gibbs and never could be and shouldn't try. She touched on the fact that surely a good friend of Gibbs would be able to contact him and get him to come home to DC, to his family. All of Abby's recent conversational gambits to Tony were explained. As was the trainee stickers she insisted on slapping on him when he went to the lab for results.

Those stickers were something that had truly hurt Tony deep inside and he was glad there were at least somewhat mitigating circumstances surrounding the cruelty Abby was displaying. To be honest, the cruelty that the entire team had been displaying towards Tony since Gibbs had abandoned them.

But it all seemed so over the top and ridiculous. Why in the world would the director of a federal agency spend so much time and energy trying to isolate one of her team leads from any back up? Granted, looking at her own stroking of his ego and the conversations that had occurred before his first “date” with Jeanne, Tony could see clearly how her manipulations of the others had led to him leaning so strongly on the only supposed support he had left – Jenny herself. And had opened him to being willing to take on the undercover job that was hinky from the get go with few questions. But it just didn't make any sense.

Tony had spent the rest of the day trying to figure it all out and now he sat in his apartment, mulling over everything and wishing he could talk to someone about it all but realizing that the whole problem stemmed from the isolation that Jenny had been encouraging, evidently daily, among his former “family”.

Tony has read the file compiled by “Trent Kort” and understood that the director was obsessed with taking down, and most likely, personally killing, the man she believed drove her father to suicide if not outright killed him. Tony can understand that kind of motivation. He's seen it plenty of times over his time in various police departments and at NCIS. Revenge killing happens all of the time. Throughout history, wars have started because of revenge. Blood feuds which decimate entire families and clans and even countries are throughout the pages of history books everywhere.

But Jenny was going so much further than simply trying to arrest or kill Renee Benoit. Even if the op Tony is on, where he has slowly begun to date Jeanne, is truly unsanctioned and completely off the books, as his cousin is sure, Jenny still could have ordered him to do it. She could have just told him to take the assignment and not told him (as she hadn't) that no one else knew about it. There was no need to make him feel alone and isolated from his entire support system, which had already taken a mighty blow with the departure of his mentor.

Tony could understand that Jenny wanted to have his loyalty, which had always been to Gibbs over her in the past, but the scheme she was undertaking, the near seduction of his loyalty and affections, though not sexual in any way, was off. Before it had felt gentle. Tony had realized that she wanted his loyalty and she was there for him and supporting him, so he had given it to her. But now, with what he had discovered of her plots, it felt more like slavery, like a rape of who he was, his psyche. And it was so very unnecessary.

In a movie comparison, he would equate her with an over the top Bond villain, who created an elaborate Rube Goldberg plan when a simple assassination would do. She wanted sharks with lasers on their heads rather than remote controlled mines.

Tony's cousin had included a small flash drive with the files he had provided. The notes said that is contained a hacking program which would use pre-established pathways to hack systems from the location it was uploaded. This told Tony that the CIA knew about McGee's illegal entries into various databases. And using the program would cover Tony's own tracks. The problem was that Tony needed to know where and what to hack. He already knew about Jenny's father, Jasper Shepard, and his connection to Benoit. He knew that the CIA and FBI were running Benoit. He knew that the op against Jeanne was entirely in Jenny's head. He had no need to hack anything to learn that.

What Tony needed was a way to figure out why Jenny was being so hinky. It made no sense to him, no matter how long he thought about it. So, the only thing he could do right now was to keep an eye on Jenny. He might be able to use the program to hack into NCIS' own system and use the cameras to keep an eye on her comings and goings. And, plus side, if it was detected, it would trace back to McGee, traitor that he was.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

Tony lounged at his desk, the L-shaped alcove hiding most of his fidgets from anyone in the bullpen. Though, considering that it was after midnight on a Friday, that wasn’t really an issue. But Tony couldn’t help but fidget. His legs bounced up and down, his feet tapped silently, even his fingers tapped out an invisible concerto as he looked upwards and thought about how his life had changed in the past three weeks since his meeting with his cousin.

Tony had decided to hack the cameras at NCIS to track Jenny’s movements and had watched her surreptitiously downing some type of pill numerous times over the course of four days of viewing. The pills came from an unlabeled bottle and were obviously not an over-the-counter medication like aspirin or allergy medication. Tony had zoomed in on a close up of them and the markings on the pill face led him to use the hacking program to find Jenny’s doctor and read her medical records. After a crash course in early onset genetic diseases like Creutzfeldt-jakob disease, Tony realised he was in over his head.

He had used his contacts to get in touch with the FBI with his information and they agreed to keep it on the down low. Then, four days ago, Assistant Director Vance had shown up in the building and was supposedly recruiting for a big mission at the behest of SecNav. He had interviewed numerous agents, including McGee and Ziva, though not Tony himself and was often seen simply wandering the halls, observing and listening.

Tony thought that Jenny was going to go down. He had given his FBI contacts the information about her father, her recent obsession with Benoit, her actions regarding his team, the undercover assignment he had been carrying out regarding Jeanne Benoit (though he had cancelled their last date and told Jenny that Jeanne was out of town for a few weeks at a medical conference), and his observations of the director taking strange pills. He knew that his spying wouldn’t bite him because several times the cameras had caught Jenny taking the pills in fairly public areas where Tony could have seen her with his own eyes.

Then the man who was largely considered to be next in line for the directorship shows up in the building and starts asking questions? Yeah, his contacts had seen the problems and passed the info on up the line. No doubts about it. His only worry was that Vance had not interviewed him. It was possible that his contacts had kept his involvement to a minimum and that all Vance knew was about the assignment with Jeanne and if that was the case then he might think Tony was involved in Jenny’s schemes. But then again, if Vance knew about Tony being the whistle-blower, he could be keeping him out of the line of Jenny’s fire by not approaching him. Jenny still thought that Tony was in the dark and Vance was supposedly here regarding an upcoming long term overseas assignment about terrorists and the mafia. If Vance had interviewed him, Jenny could have been spooked, thinking he might mention that he was currently on a long term undercover operation and would not be able to take the assignment overseas. And that could have blown the whole thing wide open if Vance had asked for details and it had come out that it was unsanctioned and entirely on Jenny’s head.

So Tony was in the dark and he hated the feeling. He worried about his team, though he was still incredibly hurt and angry about their recent behavior and how easy it was for Jenny to manipulate them to turn on him. He worried about the agency and how it would handle the scandal that was bound to break. He worried about Jenny herself. Though he hated her recent actions, he knew she was not totally compos mentis and it upset him that the vibrant woman that he had come to know would rapidly descend into a very bad, very messy death. Tony worried about his own job and if he would have any kind of place in the agency after the fallout settled. It all depended on Vance and what he knew, what he saw and what he believed.

When Tony realized what Vance’s presence meant, he had once more used the program his cousin had supplied him and did a full check on his potential new boss. He had found some very interesting data and wasn’t quite sure what it all meant in the overall scheme of things but he was happy to have it in his back pocket nonetheless. It was always good to know where the bodies were buried. Even if you never used the information, it could help you land more softly when you jumped.

Tony shifted in his seat, finally ready to go home and let tomorrow bring what it would when a masculine throat was cleared near Ziva’s desk. He opened his eyes and saw Leon Vance standing there looking at him with a slightly raised eyebrow.

“Assistant Director Vance.” Tony turned in his chair and tilted his head towards the man. “You’re in the building awfully late.”

Vance smiled lightly. “So are you, Agent DiNozzo.”

Tony chuckled. “I do my _best_ work at night, sir. It is quiet and I can think. Plus, when no one is here, I can set up pranks for tomorrow.” He smirked.

“Hmmm. Yes. I’ve heard about your reputation for jokes, DiNozzo. But being alone in the bullpen is also a good time to drop the mask and just be a good agent without worrying about portraying the idiot for others.”

Tony leaned back in his chair. “You’re good, Assistant Director. It takes most people quite a while to see through my masks.” His lips twisted wryly. “Some never seem to manage it.”

Vance inclined his head. “We all wear masks of one kind or another. And federal agents should realize that and at least acknowledge it even if they don’t try to see behind them.”

Tony nodded. “There are all kinds of masks. People tend to wear different ones for different occasions and people. And then there are the masks that never get removed. Masks that protect old hurts or old secrets.”

Vance looked at him, eyes narrowed as his eye glance from Tony’s face, the position of his chair and then to the ceiling and the numerous cameras. Tony smiled lightly as he saw the recognition dawn in the man’s eyes. Tony was positioned in such a way that none of the cameras had an angle on his face. The cameras did not record audio and with the way Tony was sitting and the tilt of his head, no one would be able to view the tapes and read his lips. And it appeared entirely accidental. Though, of course, it was completely intentional.

“How so?” asked Vance warily.

“I know you knew Gibbs. He had lots of markers, lots of inside info. He was a bull in the china shop though. He used those markers like bludgeons to get what he wanted. There was no real subtlety in it. Me - _I_ have contacts, too. I’ve been in law enforcement for a long time. And I know all kinds of people. And my people are actually _better_ than Gibbs people because I don’t scare the information out of them. I know where lots of the ‘bodies’ are buried but I wouldn’t use that information to TKO some one's life and career unless innocents were on the line. Especially if that knockout punch would also harm innocent family members. It amazes me sometimes how people think their secrets, big secrets, secrets about their pasts, their _true_ selves, are safe. You’d be surprised how many people know things about up and comers that are supposedly secret. The only way a secret between two people stays a secret is if one of them is dead. And dies before telling anyone.”

Vance inhaled sharply. “Yet, you set off this investigation into Shepard.”

“Like I said - innocents in the line of fire. Jeanne Benoit is clueless about the truth of her father. And there is no family to be hurt in _Jenny’s_ life. That is rather her whole reason. The last of her family and the manner of his death has laid dormant in her psyche until her political power grew. And as her mind has deteriorated and her death is approaching - it, basically, all became a perfect storm. If it had been left alone it could have hurt not just Jeanne, or Jenny herself, or me, but the entire agency. Jenny _needed_ to be reined in. I reported what I knew and hoped someone would help her.”

Vance leaned against the corner of Ziva’s empty desk, forcing Tony to change position though his head titled to keep his lips unobserved from above. “But you don’t just shoot people down indiscriminately? Just because you’re bored or to advance your own career?”

Tony sighed. “I really have little ambition. If Gibbs were still here, I would be his SFA and happy about it. But he bailed when his secrets came out and his brain injury couldn’t deal with everything. And I thought you understood about masks, sir. Levity is my way of making the job more bearable. What we deal with day in and day out - it can burn people out. I’ve seen it. I’m sure you have, too. I help provide a break to my co-workers, let them vent emotions. It works well and actually helps with productivity.”

The older man nodded his head. “I can see that. And even with all of the bullshit you’ve had to put up with from your team in the last few months since Gibbs took off, the solve rate hasn’t even bobbled. When I got the report on what you said about Shepard’s manipulations of your co-workers, I thought you were lying to cover your own ass and your part in the Benoit op. But over the past few days, I’ve heard her. She’s not even _subtle_ about it. Maybe she was in the beginning but I was actually right behind her in a hallway when I heard her encouraging Agent McGee to think he knew better than you. Now, granted, I think computers are the future of this agency, but you have led this team well under very trying circumstances. And Agent McGee is only, what, a year out of his probationary status, versus your eight years as a cop and five years here at NCIS? It is mind boggling.”

“Yes, sir. Mind boggling and wounding, frankly. I brought him up from a probie and he thinks because he went to MIT and Johns Hopkins that he is a better agent than I am. He’s still green and so very wet behind the ears. But he doesn’t respect someone with a BS in Phys Ed and who was ‘just a cop’. He doesn’t look deeper or think things through, _not_ a good quality in a field agent.”

“I’ve seen your file, DiNozzo. Yeah, you got a Phys Ed degree from Ohio State but you have what - _two_ Master’s degrees from Temple University and Georgetown _and_ you’re ABD in Psychology from Georgetown, too. _How_ does he not _know_ that?”

“He never looks behind the mask, sir. He sees the frat boy, the skirt chaser, the prankster, the movie buff. He doesn’t think about how I solve cases. He never looked into my past records. They aren’t a secret. He just never bothered. Gibbs knew, at least some of it. Ziva _should_ know but I don’t think she believes it. I think she somehow thinks I bought the degrees or something.”

“What is with David, anyway? She’s got no business being on the MCRT. And it boggles my mind that Eli David would place his daughter as a liaison to a small agency like NCIS. And not even in an anti-terrorism unit. But a major crime unit. She doesn’t have the background for that.”

“It _is_ a fight to get her to not illegally search places with her lock picks. Not to mention, not killing suspects who are handcuffed in the elevator because she wanted them to stop talking. _That_ almost got Director Shepard killed by that moron’s brother. Ziva’s not evil but you are correct. Her skill set and background have _not_ prepared her for American law enforcement. And frankly, I’ve never quite trusted her fully. She _is_ the one who prepared the dossiers that pointed her terrorist brother to our team and to kill Agent Todd. And she has access to some sensitive information with her clearance level that I’m not sure a foreign operative on American soil should have, ally or not. But Director Shepard says she is on the team, so she is on the team. End of story.”

“Well, I’ll have to look into that.”

Tony cocked his head, his eyes widening. “Oh?”

Vance chuckled. “As of 0100 I became Director of NCIS and Jenny Shepard is retiring on medical leave. She’ll be checking into a hospital in the morning and SevNav will be here at 0900 to make the formal handover and announcement. But I’ve been in my new office and found something interesting in one of the desk drawers. It seems that Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ retirement paperwork was never filed. He is on the books as long term leave, using up his sick days and vacation days that he had saved over the years.”

“Hmm. That was entirely Jenny, I suspect. I don’t think he is planning on coming back. If he turned in retirement paperwork, he assumes it has been filed.”

“And if he changes his mind?”

“You’re asking _me_ , Director?”

“Yes, I am. I think you’re a good man and an excellent agent, DiNozzo. I think you could use a bit more computers after you get your doctorate but I want to hear what you think. If Gibbs decided to come back, what would you do?”

“I suppose it all depends on the team, sir,” he mused. “I like being Team Lead even with all of the issues I have had lately. I like mentoring Agent Lee. She’s already growing into her own and I want to see her become the agent I know she can be. But she’d never get there under Gibbs. They are too different fundamentally. But if Gibbs came back, Tim and Ziva would gloat. If you demoted me back to SFA and -”

“That is not going to happen, DiNozzo. Regardless of what happens, I am not demoting you. You are an excellent Team Lead and I am _not_ losing you.”

“Thank you, sir.” Tony blushed lightly.

“I’m going to let Gibbs’ vacation and sick days run out and if he isn’t back, I’ll file the retirement package. If he comes back, I’ll either assign him a new team or give one to you. Either way, neither of you will have Officer David. I am transferring her to the joint terrorism task force. I can’t in good conscience keep her on a major crime team. I don’t _care_ what Eli wants. She’ll still be his liaison in America with NCIS but her access to information will be limited as it should be. And you’ll keep Agent Lee. Work with her some more and I agree she’ll be a good agent.”

“Thank you, Director Vance. And before you make any further decisions, I suggest taking a look at Agent McGee’s recent ... _extracurricular_ activities. I found out something about why he’s been disappearing lately during active investigations. And I’m not sure what he has done is entirely ... kosher, so to speak. It certainly straddles the line.”

Tony turned his chair and opened his bottom desk drawer, pulling out a book. “This is an advance copy of an upcoming thriller by a new author, Thom E Gemcity. It is an ... _interesting_ read, sir. I wasn’t sure what to do about it. I know Director Shepard wouldn’t have done anything but you can at least decide if the problems I see are really there or not.”

Vance took the book and opened the dust jacket, his eyes skimming over the text of the blurb. “You’re _kidding_ me,” he muttered before looking up at the agent behind the desk. “Tell me this _isn’t_ what I think it is.”

“I can’t. It is what it is. And McGee has been taking breaks during active cases to do interviews for publicity. The book releases in just under two weeks.”

Vance sighed. “I’ll read it tonight and figure out where to go from there. Thank you for bringing it to my attention, Special Agent DiNozzo. Now get out of here and go home. I expect you back by 0800. Try to get some sleep.”

Tony nodded as the older man turned and walked away. Grabbing his bag and gun, Tony rose to his feet and smiled. The chickens were coming home to roost. Gibbs, McGee, Ziva and Jenny were going to have to live with the consequences of their actions. And Tony wouldn’t be a sacrifice for any of them today.

 

 


End file.
